About

Our goal

We are a small group of programmers and engineers who
apply complex engineering solutions to fun products that everyone can enjoy. We love all things
robot-related! In our experience, we have seen a lot of kits that make engineering fun
for artists, but very few kits that introduce art to engineers. As a
group, we want to bridge the gap between art and engineering by creating
art hacked from electronics.

We are Kickstarting D.Bug Kits as our first product. Each
D.Bug is named after a real-world software or hardware error often
encountered in robotics. Similar electronic sculptures are sold by
artists for hundreds of dollars. D.Bug kits are an inexpensive way for
everyone to enjoy creating art. The kit is purely aesthetic, so it
breaks down the barriers of working with electronics since testing functionality is not required.

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The story

Born from the procrastination of electrical engineering undergraduates,
D.Bugs are constructed by soldering together electronic components. Each
kit includes an instruction manual, electronic components, decals, and a
specimen jar.

WARNING: Kits contain small parts that may be a choking hazard for children.

Everyday, thousands of programmers search their code for errors they call
bugs. Only the most elusive bugs will escape...and make it to you, the
users. Now it is up to you to debug your system and stop these bugs from
breaking your devices. Construct your own D.Bug and trap it inside a
jar to warn others that their shenanigans will not be tolerated. Our
quality assurance engineers at Robot Brigade found three nasty D.Bugs
for you to reproduce - we are offering these as rewards for your support.

Help the programmers win the battle against the bugs. Build all the kits and show the D.Bugs who's boss!

There are bugs living inside your computer

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Rewards

For your support, we offer several levels of rewards, including three D.Bug kits. D.Bugs pictured below are prototypes, and may differ from the final product depending on the availability of components.

$5 Pledge - D.Bug collector card

New Designs, now including Captain Blue Screen! future designs may differ slightly

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$15 Pledge - Complete set of D.Bug postcards

D.Bug postcards. Final designs may differ slightly.

Help spread the word about D.Bugs by sending postcards to friends and family! Postcards are also included with all kits.

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$35 Pledge - Watch Dog model kit, set of postcards, soldering iron

Watch Dog - after assembly

Watch Dog is high maintenance, and if you don't feed him regularly with function calls he will reset your device. The kit includes an instruction manual, electronic components, decals, and a
specimen jar. We are also including a set of postcards and a soldering iron!

Grand Cappy likes to burst old electrolytic capacitors, destroying your computer. The kit includes an instruction manual, electronic components, decals, and a
specimen jar. We are also including a set of postcards, a soldering iron, and wire cutters!

Memory Hog devours RAM, starving the other programs as your computer slows to a crawl under his massive appetite. The kit includes an instruction manual, electronic components, decals, and a
specimen jar. We are also including a set of postcards, a soldering iron, wire cutters, and pliers!

You will receive all three kits: Watch Dog, Grand Cappy, and Memory Hog. The kit includes all three instruction manuals, electronic components, three sets of decals, and three
specimen jars. Plus a set of postcards, a soldering iron, wire cutters, and pliers!

All three assembled D.Bugs inside specimen jars with decals

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Additional limited-quantity rewards

Each Monday and Wednesday we will release a limited-edition D.Bug handcrafted by the Robot Brigade. The masterpieces are unique and fully assembled, and they will only be offered at a limited quantity. Support us, and we will send you an update right before we release to increase your chance of getting one!

When all else fails, you find yourself face to face with the Power
Cycle. It sounds technical, but it's not... turn it off... wait for 10
seconds... then turn it back on... Power Cycle is the Hail Mary of bugs.
When the guy on tech support tells you to Power Cycle your machine, you
know the D.Bugs have won... With your pledge, you will receive Power Cycle, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete
set of D.Bug postcards.

In a rush to print that 20 page paper before class? Keep an eye out for
Paper Jam! You can hear Paper Jam rocking out on his guitar at the least
convenient times. The next time you open the paper feed tray and find a
sheet of wrinkled paper jammed between the rollers, you'll know who
just shredded your essay with his electric ax, Paper Jam! With your pledge, you will receive Paper Jam, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete
set of D.Bug postcards.

Heisenbugs are said to be "mythical" bugs that vanish when programmers
try to observe them. These bugs are named after the Heisenburg
uncertainty principle. A Heisenbug may disappear or change form due to
uninitialized variables or subtle timing issues. The Heisenbug pictured
below is being tamed by a Code Ninja dangling some bait in his face. Be
careful, it looks like these two are about to cause some mischief! With your pledge, you will receive Heisenbug with his Tamer, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete
set of D.Bug postcards.

Beware of the Warewolf's bite! The Warewolf lurks around the Internet
and baits unsuspecting users with freeware and shiny links to click.
When you fall for his trap, the Warewolf will give you a few nasty bytes
to infect your computer with Spyware, Malware, and Adware. Once bitten,
you computer is transformed into a beastly slave to the disgusting
Warewolf... With your pledge, you will receive the Warewolf, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete
set of D.Bug postcards.

Code Ninjas sabotage your code with typos. They like to steal your curly
braces in C, and they love swapping your spaces with tabs in Python.
Ninjas can be very sneaky... and you can waste hours looking for them.
The next time your compiler croaks on a missing semicolon, you'll know
that you just got hacked by Code Ninjas! You will receive the trio of Code Ninjas pictured above, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete set of D.Bug postcards.

Malloc dreams of being freed, but it looks like he will remain grounded
forever. Eternally frozen moments before his leap off the heap, this
block of memory will just end up as wasted space during runtime. It is a
shame too, because his colorful rockets look like they are ready to
burst! You will receive the Unfreed Malloc Masterpiece, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete set of D.Bug postcards.

Somebody forgot to pet the Watch Dog and now he is ready to reset
your device. His wings are outstretched, and he is ready to pounce with
his stinger raised. Watch Dog Reset is a fierce addition to your D.Bug
Collection! You will receive the Watch Dog Reset, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete set of six D.Bug postcards.

Captain Blue Screen is a capacitor pirate decked out in full pirate rags. Check out the eye patch, hook hand, spy glass, peg leg, epaulettes, capacitor parrot, and of course a dashing pirate hat! Be careful...once he steals your computer's capacitors, you may see the blue screen of death. You will receive Captain Blue Screen, one D.Bug kit of your choice, and a complete set of six D.Bug postcards.

$1,337 & $1,341 Pledges - D.Bug dioramas for High-Rollers

We will reward our high-rolling supporters with D.Bug dioramas, similar to what is seen below in the section, D.Bugs on display.

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Kit assembly

To assemble the kit, you solder together electronic components to form the body parts of the D.Bug.

Easy to assemble!

The manual includes step-by-step photo instructions, the background story for each D.Bug, a guide to identifying electronic parts, a tutorial for soldering, a harvesting guide for where to find the best parts, and insider tips on how to make your D.Bug look awesome.

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D.Bugs on display

The best part of completing your sculpture
will be showing it off. Got an old computer? Turn it into a D.Bug
playpen. You can recreate epic failures like the Big Crash of 2009 when
your hard disk died 2 days before that project was due.

You can also construct
a memorial in honor of your first PC. The D.Bugs will love playing on
your outdated AGP 4x slot or with the useless stick of 256MB RAM.

Upcycle an old PC into a D.Bug playpen

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Why we need your support

Your support will go directly towards defraying the costs of packaging, printing, and components. Your enthusiasm will help us gauge the level of interest in D.Bugs - as our craze for them could be a little biased - and build a community of artistic roboticists. After Kickstarter is over, we will set up a site for everyone to upload their D.Bugs to share!

Our work is still in progress and we need your support to help us complete the kits. We go to great lengths to find the coolest looking parts for you, and the vendors we have found for printing and packaging are mostly local. From start to finish, we handle the D.Bugs with a lot of love and care in hopes that you will also enjoy creating something special.

"The best analogy for D.Bug models is origami. The most common
applications of paper and electronics are completely flat. You write on
paper just like you solder components onto a circuit board. You can
create a lot of great work on paper and create some amazing circuits,
but you should not be bound by convention. When you see an origami
masterpiece, your first reaction is “Wow, that’s really cool!” but then
you look deeper and you realize, “I can’t believe that is made out of
one sheet of paper!” I want D.Bugs to have the same feel. You should
first enjoy the aesthetics and then appreciate the materials that
created it." - Donald

The campaign is over, but you still want D.Bugs?

Of course you do because you are awesome! This was the Robot Brigade's first campaign, and we didn't fund, but it is OK. We are going to relaunch shortly and completely retool D.Bugs with everything we've learned, and we learned a lot! We are so excited and you should be too! Here is what you should do next:

Like us on Facebook - We just launched the Robot Brigade Facebook page with HUNDREDS of pictures of D.Bugs to satisfy your needs

Give us feedback - if you supported us during the campaign we'll send out a survey and we would love to learn about how much you love crowd funding, soldering, bugs, and robots :)

So stay tuned and don't give up! We'll be back, and we will be looking for your support on the the FIRST DAY of our next campaign!

Risks and challenges

While electronic components are easy to find and source, the most attractive parts are hardest to locate. Fortunately, we live near Silicon Valley where there are many electronic parts distributors that we can personally visit to ensure we get the coolest parts for your kits.

By day, we are all engineers, graduate students, and professionals. Our work with Robot Brigade exists purely as an extracurricular activity. We have put a lot of heart and sweat into making these kits so far, and we will make sure that all pledges will be fulfilled in a timely manner.

Our biggest challenge is in making sure that you are happy with the way your D.Bug turns out. But remember, at the end of the day, your D.Bug will always look better than what is pictured on the package because you made it!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $170 or more
About $170

Limited Edition Release #2 - Watch Dog Reset. You will receive a fully assembled Watch Dog Reset masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a complete set of six D.Bug postcards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $200 or more
About $200

Limited Edition Release #3 - Unfreed Malloc. You will receive a fully assembled Unfreed Malloc masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a set of postcards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $220 or more
About $220

Limited Edition Release #5 - Warewolf. You will receive a fully assembled Warewolf masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a set of postcards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $220 or more
About $220

Limited Edition Release #6 - Heisenbug with his Tamer. You will receive a fully assembled Heisenbug masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a set of postcards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $220 or more
About $220

Limited Edition Release #7 - Paper Jam. You will receive a fully assembled Paper Jam masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a set of postcards.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $220 or more
About $220

Limited Edition Release #8 - Power Cycle. You will receive a fully assembled Power Cycle masterpiece in a display case decorated with decals. You will also receive any one D.Bug kit of your choice and a set of postcards.